Einhorn's Chipotle Short Starved for Logic: Street Whispers

Chipotle Mexican Grill(NYSE:CMG) shares are tanking to new one-year lows after the popular restaurant chain reported slightly weaker than forecasted third quarter earnings.

At first blush, Chipotle's falling shares would validate David Einhorn's recent argument that the company is overvalued. However, in this instance, the famous Greenlight Capital short seller, who's correctly taken on Lehman Brothers and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters(NASDAQ:GMCR), is being rewarded for being right for all of the wrong reasons.

That is, if you take Einhorn's rationale for the short trade at face value.

Earlier in October, Chipotle shares were hit hard when Einhorn unveiled the high-flying restaurant stock as a new short position at the Value Investing Congress, citing the company's high price to earnings multiple and a competitive landscape marked by a resurgent Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM). Now, after third quarter earnings came in slightly weaker than expected, the company's share fall is turning into a rout. Chipotle's lost roughly $2.4 billion in market cap and nearly 30% in market value in the past month.

Einhorn made headlines for his theory that a new line of healthy Mexican fare at Taco Bell -- Cantina Bowls -- would cut into Chipotle's customer base, hurting the Denver, Colorado-based chain's all-important earnings growth. Less emphasized in Einhorn's short thesis was Chipotle's expensive price-to-earnings multiple above 30 and the company's earnings trajectory as Chipotle turns from a novel restaurant to a mainstay in the fast-food industry.

As shares fall over 14% in early trading to $244 per share -- levels not seen since early 2011 -- it's the company's high PE multiple, slightly weaker than expected earnings, and same store sales growth that are pushing the stock lower, not the impact of Taco Bell Cantina Bowls. Meanwhile, rising commodity costs damper the company's once rosy earnings outlook.

Chipotle posted a $72.3 million profit, or $2.27 in earnings per share for the quarter, rising over 20% from year-ago levels of a $60.4 million profit, or $1.90 in EPS. Those figures came in slightly below consensus estimates of $2.29 in EPS, as revenue of $700.5 million fell less than 1% short of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. More importantly, compared with the third quarter of 2011, revenue and profit growth slowed to roughly 20% from levels closer to 25% a year ago.

When Einhorn made his presentation of Chipotle as a short, he made it a priority to emphasize the impact of Taco Bell, shouting a company slogan, "Taco, taco, Taco Bell," in a Midtown Manhattan ballroom. He even beckoned a room full of analysts, traders, and journalists to go to the nearest Taco Bell and see why Cantina Bowls spell Chipotle's stock demise.